The Power of Playful Learning: How Our Children Really Learn

Gone are the days when children spent nearly half of their free time at play. Across the country, thousands of schools trim recess from the day’s activities, telling us the time is better spent in academic pursuits. But have our children profited from this uptick in “educational” time? Statistics suggest not: U.S. teens rank surprisingly low among industrialized nations in reading, science, and math. Newsweek decries the next generation’s lack of creativity in a century that demands flexible thinking, while some have gone farther and insisted that our subpar performance is a national security risk. How, then, do our children really learn? Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Lefkowitz Professor of Psychology and director of the Infant and Language Laboratory at Temple University, debunks the myth that play and learning are incompatible, exploring ways in which one facilitates the other. Sponsored by the Barnard Center for Toddler Development.